CBC English services to cut 256 jobs to deal with government cuts

The CBC programming cuts include cancelling Connect with Mark Kelley and Dispatches with Rick MacInnes-Rae.

The CBC News department is to take a $10 million hit to its annual operating budget, leading to the loss of 88 jobs.

As the pubcaster held an employees town hall in Toronto on Tuesday, the CBC revealed 256 jobs in all will be lost in English radio and TV services.

The programming cuts of $22.1 million from English services includes cancelling Connect with Mark Kelley and Dispatches with Rick MacInnes-Rae.

“Thanks 2 all of u for the kind words and RTs. A tough day…” CBC Dispatches said on its Twitter account Wednesday.

“A big thanks to everyone tweeting kind words. We are sad to confirm that we have been cancelled due to CBC budget cuts,” the CBC News program Connect said, via its Twitter account.

The CBC sports department will absorb a $4 million hit, with 14 jobs to go in that department.

The CBC is also reducing kids programming and live music recording and ending drama programming on Radio One as part of a bid to cut costs after Ottawa last week imposed an overall $115 million cut to the pubcaster’s annual Parliamentary appropriation over three years.

On the TV front, the CBC will air six fewer series next year, or around 175 fewer original hours.

The extent of the TV cuts will be known in time for the CBC Fall launch on May 10.

Indie producers will receive notice of the CBC’s latest series pickups next week.

The town hall also included questions about the future of lucrative NHL games on the CBC, which appear in limbo as the network negotiates a possible new Canadian TV contract with the pro hockey league.